The Great Britain first and second youth women’s teams enjoyed great success at the European Youth Relay Championships last Sunday 26 July.
In temperatures of around 30 degrees each of the three team members first completed a 300m swim in the crystal clear waters of Banyoles Lake, the setting for the 1992 Olympic rowing events. Then followed a 6.6km cycle leg around the lake and then a 1.6km run plus an additional 400m finish straight on the third leg.
Fourteen teams from 10 countries competed and the relatively unknown but very strong and consistent Russian team emerged as clear victors with a total time of 01:07:32. GBR 1 having lead after the first leg finished second in 01:08:20 with France third in 01:08:37.
The GBR 2 team which included Worcester Tri Club’s Nixie Turner finished seventh in 01:10:00, only 13 seconds separating them from fifth placed Spain. They finished ahead of the first teams of Portugal, Hungary, Ukraine and Sweden and all of the other second teams (Ukraine, Spain and Portugal), demonstrating the current strength and depth in British female youth and junior triathlon.
Nixie took the third and final leg and completed the course in an individual time of 23.47 – the sixth fastest third leg time. However her bike time of 10:19 was the fifth fastest of all the 42 competitors.
The GBR 1 youth men’s team went one better, winning their event in 01:00:05 with Spain second and Portugal third. The youth men’s GBR 2 team did not finish.
To cap off a fine day for British Triathlon the GBR U23 mixed relay team (which included female youth Issy Morris) came a close second to Italy in their event.
The GBR 1 and 2 Youth Men and Women’s relay teams. Nixie Turner 4th from right.